The COVID-19 Pandemic: Female Workers’ Social Sustainability in Global Supply Chains

Abstract

This review article investigates the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on female workers in the global supply chain context. To this end, we reviewed and critically examined emerging scholarly literature as well as policy documents and reports published by international development organizations concerning female workers’ social sustainability, livelihood, and health and wellbeing issues in global supply chain operations. Thus, this article focuses on female workers’ issues in emerging and developing economies where the ongoing pandemic continues to devastate and create multidimensional social and economic challenges for the wellbeing and social sustainability of female workers. Our analysis suggests that female workers are facing serious socioeconomic challenges that continue to affect their wellbeing, mental health, and livelihoods. Accordingly, it is imperative that international development organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), trade associations, governments, and most importantly the corporate sector not only consider individual responsibility for promoting female workforce social sustainability in global supply chains but also actively collaborate to address pressing social sustainability issues vis à vis female workers. Building on these findings, the implications for future research, practice, and policies are discussed.

A Systematic Review on Non-Governmental Organization Role and Strategies During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This study had involved 14 articles from all over the world. The country of the origin includes Brazil (Coriolano & de Oliveira, 2021), Cambodia (Henley et al, 2021), Thailand (Lau et al, 2021), Malaysia (Murdad et al, 2022), Nepal (Larmar et al, 2021), Hong Kong (Lau et al, 2021a), Indonesia (Rela et al, 2022), India (Peteet, Hempton, Peteet, & Martin, 2020) and five articles involved global data since it is a review article (Geekiyanage et al, 2021); (Ningrum & Subroto, 2022); (Santos & Laureano, 2022); (Sajjad & Eweje, 2021) and (Juhász & Hetesi, 2023).…”

“…To control this uncertainty, NGOs have taken the role of raising community awareness about COVID-19. This includes encouraging sustainability in society as well as the beneficial effects of community efforts (Sajjad & Eweje, 2021). Additionally, NGOs supplied and transmitted information to the community to help them better understand the actions taken by any agencies, such as the concepts, benefits, and methods of implementation (Geekiyanage et al, 2021).A local media monitoring program has been implemented by the NGO to ensure that correct information is delivered to the communities as well as identifying reliable individuals/organizations to provide information (Rela et al, 2022).…”

Internet Consumption and Economic Growth in Malaysia's Post-Covid 19 Economic Recovery Efforts

“…Both the government and the business world have an important role in preventing and minimizing the effects of abuses of human rights. A crisis in relation to entrepreneurship, as well as in ensuring measures aimed at the effect of economic recovery based on respect for human rights (Sajjad & Eweje, 2021). The core of the quick response to the crisis and better rebuilding initiatives involve both commercial interests and human rights.…”

Innovative Development Finance for Health Sector Development: Focusing on the Air Ticket Solidarity Levy System in the Republic of Korea

“…Among different areas of developmental support, securing sufficient financial resources is particularly significant in the health sector where people's very lives are at stake [2]. In tackling healthcare issues, the recent COVID-19 crisis was yet another reminder of how the health issue is globally intertwined, a vivid display of how policies at the national level have profound international implications [3,4].…”